Stealth

Stealth is a minionability which prevents that minion from being the target of enemy attacks, spells and effects until they attack. They can, however, be the target of area of effect spells and abilities or those that have random targets, as well as spells and effects generated by their owner.

Minions in Stealth cannot be directly targeted by the opponent in any way. This includes Battlecry effects from enemy minions.

Minions in Stealth can still be directly targeted by the controlling player. For example, a Voodoo Doctor can be used to heal a friendly Stealthed minion that has been damaged by AoE, or a Shattered Sun Cleric can be used to buff it.

Unlike in games like World of Warcraft, receiving damage will not break a minion's Stealth.

Any additional effects or enchantments of Stealthed minions are still active even if Stealthed. This can make Stealth a very convenient way of protecting valuable buff minions, which may otherwise be vulnerable to attack. Blood Imp is one example of a buff minion that comes with Stealth.

A minion that is in Stealth and given Taunt by another card will not act as a taunt until it comes out of Stealth.

Like Divine Shield, Stealth is both an ability of a minion and an effect on the minion. Once the effect is consumed, the card text is still present but no longer does anything.

A Stealthed minion that is silenced will lose the Stealth effect, regardless of how it became Stealthed.

A non-Stealthed minion that is granted Stealth will gain the Stealth effect, regardless of whether it has ever had the Stealth effect before or has the Stealth card text.

A minion with the Stealth card text which is restored to its original state (such as through being re-summoned (Kel'Thuzad, Reincarnate) or re-played) will regain the Stealth effect. Conversely, the Stealth effect itself will be lost upon death or being returned to the hand or deck.

Minions that attack lose Stealth after the Combat Preparation Phase and just before any subsequent Death Phases/the actual combat itself, meaning that even if no Damage Event is created by attacking (such as by triggering Ice Block or if the minion is reduced to 0 Attack before the actual combat), the attack still breaks Stealth.[1] Conversely, if you have a Stealthed 0 Attack minion, and due to Clumsy it is attacked, it does not break Stealth because it does not create a Damage Event.[2]

Note that Damage Events for 0 damage (involving Divine Shield and Commanding Shout), while not allowing on-damage triggers to run, will break Stealth. Conversely, if there is no Damage Event at all (because of Immune or Ice Block), Stealth remains intact.[3]

The only way to grant Stealth to a hero is through Valeera the Hollow's Battlecry, which grants Stealth to the controlling player's hero until their next turn.

Stealth is very effective for protecting minions from enemy attack. However, as the Stealthed minion is unable to attack without losing the effect, Stealth's value is largely strategic. A minion which simply stays in Stealth is generally of little use to its owner, unless it offers a useful triggered or ongoing effect, in which case remaining in Stealth can be extremely desirable, especially as these minions are often high priority soft taunts.

Much of Stealth's value often lies in keeping the minion hidden until it is ready to attack; in a sense a substitute for a Charge minion, played the following turn. Stealth minions can offer a similar level of unstoppable damage, although they can still be removed with random target or AoE effects. In exchange, Stealth minions offer synergy with triggered effects and Battlecries, allowing the player to build them up before bringing them out of the shadows.

The spell Transcendence, used by the Lorewalker Chotutorial boss, grants Cho an effect very similar to Stealth: he cannot be attacked or targeted by his opponent, but he can still target himself and can take damage from non-targeted effects. Outside of the tutorial, the only way for a hero to gain Stealth is through the roguehero cardValeera the Hollow.

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